More teams have hit trouble in the final day of pre-season testing at Barcelona. At a moment when one would expect reliability issues to be nearly ironed out, the lack of running for some teams was surprising.

Does anyone have an idea why is Mercedes so stubbornly testing soft and medium tyres when it is obvious they have more problems with US and SS. Not to mention hypersoft - I don't think they have ever used them in 2018?
I mean, Monaco is in 10 days and hypersoft will be the mail qualifying tyre. Why not test it now??? Next we know they will be bitching how they can not generate enough temperature in them.

Does anyone have an idea why is Mercedes so stubbornly testing soft and medium tyres when it is obvious they have more problems with US and SS. Not to mention hypersoft - I don't think they have ever used them in 2018?
I mean, Monaco is in 10 days and hypersoft will be the mail qualifying tyre. Why not test it now??? Next we know they will be bitching how they can not generate enough temperature in them.

I dont think you can reach to many useful conclusions taking into account how different both tracks are.

Does anyone have an idea why is Mercedes so stubbornly testing soft and medium tyres when it is obvious they have more problems with US and SS. Not to mention hypersoft - I don't think they have ever used them in 2018?
I mean, Monaco is in 10 days and hypersoft will be the mail qualifying tyre. Why not test it now??? Next we know they will be bitching how they can not generate enough temperature in them.

I spoke with several Mercedes engineers last night. They told me it was to frustrate posters on internet forums.

Does anyone have an idea why is Mercedes so stubbornly testing soft and medium tyres when it is obvious they have more problems with US and SS. Not to mention hypersoft - I don't think they have ever used them in 2018?
I mean, Monaco is in 10 days and hypersoft will be the mail qualifying tyre. Why not test it now??? Next we know they will be bitching how they can not generate enough temperature in them.

Because track layout is important. Every tire has a different compound and a different temperature working range (ranging from low to high). How much temperature goes into the tire depends on how much load/energy is put through it - and that is also very dependent on the track layout.

A track like Barcelona has lots of high downforce corners that put lots of heat and energy into the tire. This heats it up significantly. We saw during the race weekend how this affected the performance of the SS - it overheated and was too hot by S3. Using an even softer tire will only exaggerate this, since an Ultra-Soft or even a Hyper-Soft are even softer and have an even lower ideal working temperature window.

Take a look:

Monaco is mechanical grip all the way.

Not for nothing, Rosberg's Championship is the only thing that lends credibility to Hamilton's recent success. Otherwise, he'd just be the guy who's had the best car. — bhall II#Team44 supporter

So, if they knew they would have problems with the softer tyres, why did they brought the supersofts? Maybe they should bring the Hard, Medium and Soft. No?

No, because they might be too hard for this particular track layout. I also assume the tires for the test were ordered way in advance (e.g. not yesterday or last week), so the knowledge they gained from the race-weekend doesn't necessarily reflect on their order which tires to use/test during testing.

Not for nothing, Rosberg's Championship is the only thing that lends credibility to Hamilton's recent success. Otherwise, he'd just be the guy who's had the best car. — bhall II#Team44 supporter

Does anyone have an idea why is Mercedes so stubbornly testing soft and medium tyres when it is obvious they have more problems with US and SS. Not to mention hypersoft - I don't think they have ever used them in 2018?
I mean, Monaco is in 10 days and hypersoft will be the mail qualifying tyre. Why not test it now??? Next we know they will be bitching how they can not generate enough temperature in them.

They replied to a question on Pirelli's Twitter page....

"Because we were not preparing for Monaco today at a circuit that bears little resemblance to it. But instead doing other testing on the stable platform of the medium compound."

Does anyone know who this Balazs Szabo person is who is writing pieces for the front of the site? The latest one about the tyres is just a rehash of old supposition with just a final throw away line at the end saying that Vettel changed his tune after the test.

The test showed that the tyres weren't changed to help Mercedes, no matter what Marko or Vettel might have said several days ago.

It's a non-story but is newly prominent on the site. Weird.

Turbo says "Dumpster sounds so much more classy. It's the diamond of the cesspools."

Does anyone know who this Balazs Szabo person is who is writing pieces for the front of the site? The latest one about the tyres is just a rehash of old supposition with just a final throw away line at the end saying that Vettel changed his tune after the test.

The test showed that the tyres weren't changed to help Mercedes, no matter what Marko or Vettel might have said several days ago.

It's a non-story but is newly prominent on the site. Weird.

He's essentially writing drivel which is subjective at best (and should be marked as "commentary" not be posted as "news" or anything like that) ... now the "Merc power advantage" article ... it's shitty clickbait loaded with personal opinions and is prominently posted on a site called f1technical ... what a joke